Monday, October 28, 2013

Fox Sports: Sit the F*** Down, Shut the F*** Up, and Show the F***ing
Game

So almost all of us have been lucky enough to attend a sporting event and get seated behind a couple of guys who Know Everything and share it loudly. As a bonus they may get up and obscure your view of the action from time to time, usually when Something Important is transpiring in the game.

Fox Sports is those guys. (You knew where I was going with this.)

It would have been cool to see history - a World Series game ending on a base runner caught off first base - and in fact, I did my part, in that I was slumped tensely* on the couch with the game on. However, actual baseball seems to be rather low on the priorities list for Fox's WS coverage; Buck and McCarver seem content to drone and blather (respectively) about various story lines while the cameras seem resentful at having to be pointed at the field.

Given all that, it really should have come as no surprise that Kolten Wong wasn't the only one caught off guard with two out in the bottom of the ninth, a man on first, and some guy at the plate. It's not like anything was getting decided on the field or anything.

The only positive takeaway from the whole sorry mess (in addition to the Sox evening the Series) was that it threw a harsh and wonderful spotlight on McCarver's moments-earlier incessant blather about the pointlessness of holding the runner at first. I swear I could hear McCarver being force-fed his words by a simultaneously delighted and enraged audience.